SSAGO Blog

Today we celebrate the birth of both Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, and the founding of the movements of Scouting and Guiding that make up not just SSAGO, but such an important part of our lives, some of this year's Exec look back on their favourite Scouting and Guiding memories...

"I would like to share my experience of Girlguiding Centenary camp to the rest of SSAGO, which brings memories of international friends on Thinking day! Despite only being 14, I still remember counting down the days and driving my parents crazy – It is safe to say that my excitement levels before any Guide/Scout camp has certainly not changed. The weeks activities did not disappoint, with caving being my favourite activity of the week! Besides the action packed week I also enjoyed meeting so many international Guides (including Japan Girl Scouts) - sharing songs, swapping badges and learning about different cultures!" - Lauren

"I don't have a favorite memory, because I've had so many good memories in the 5 years of Scouting I have had! But pre uni life, one of the best memories I have is from the Oxford Spires District camp, 3 of us had gone as our very brand new Network Group just out of Explorers and therefore spent the weekend with a lot of other explorer people who where in the school year below us, just having fun and messing about, I got into a flour fight with one explorer leaders who still till this day tries to get his own back when he sees me! During this event we had the district camp fire and while sat there with my friends and others I new, I realised that Scouting was where I fitted in and that those around me were like my second family and I would never be leaving! Best of all I learnt how to play Irish snap and it was possibly the funnest camp I can remember going on!" - Anona

"'Favourite memory' seemed like such a good idea at the time, but it's so hard to pick one; I'm making new ones all the time!

I think one of my favourite Scouting but not SSAGO (shock horror) memories is when I took my 3rd Wallscourt Farm Cub Pack to Airhop at the end of the Summer term and presented my Cub of the year with a little Lego model of herself in uniform. She was over the moon and seeing just how happy this made her was an amazing feeling. About a year later I was able to present her with the Chief Scout Silver award round a campfire on my last meeting before Graduating and moving away, and again being able to see her and all my Cubs grow and achieve their potential was wonderful. I've been able to take so much from Scouting, but it's the difference I can make with what I give back that makes it truly a life changing adventure...

Obviously haven't included a photo of my Cubs, but here's a photo of me as a Cub!" - James

In light of the Payment Service Directive (PSD2) law being introduced 13th January 2018 effecting the use of a surcharge to cover the card transaction charges, SSAGO has put on hold on the use of online payments for the shop and events.

Hello SSAGO

Unfortunately, the SSAGO Exec has had to take immediate action to suspend PayPal as a payment option for national SSAGO events, and the SSAGO shop due to a recent law change around the use of surcharges on card payments. The law makes it illegal for a business to charge extra for the use of online card payments (such as PayPal). These charges are vital for SSAGO to allow us to cover the cost of card transaction fees for online paypal payments.

Currently, we are looking into how this law affects SSAGO. We are currently in a grey area while we sort out our CIO status, we a not a business or charity, instead, we are an unregistered organisation. So until the Exec are 100% sure that we are fine to carry on payments as they are, we have removed the option of paying via paypal for both shop and event bookings. However, in the last exec meeting, it was voted on as well that we will give event committees the option to use the online payments but have to absorb the surcharge into their contingency. Please note this is a short-term solution and we will be discussing it further with reps at Witan in A Weekend.

If you have any questions you would like to raise please don't hesitate to email us at exec@ssago.org.

Quick pre-AGM catch up with the National Exec and Assistants, everything since Christmas...

Executive committee:

Joshua Smith - Chair

Had a successful meeting with both The Scout Association and Girlguiding to finalise the Memorandum of Agreement which covers our how we work together and support each other. You find out more about that here!

Finalised the Service Agreement for a SSAGO Scout Active Support Unit which will exist as a separate entity to SSAGO and allow SSAGO members not part of The Scout Association to get suitable disclosure checks and volunteer at events with SSAGO Support.

Spent over 15 hours working with HSBC to resolve some historic SSAGO bank account issue in person and over the phone.

Used up all the call time on my phone talking to HSBC.

Had catch up meetings with Witan in a Weekend Rally and Yule Ball.

Promoted SSAGO at both Gilwell Winter Camp and Sparkle and Ice with SSAGO Support.

Lauren Whittaker - Secretary

Been to the Exec weekend away

Encouraged members of Glasgow SSAGO to attend rally!

Worked with Larah (Archivist) to upload old minutes onto the website

Keeping the email log up to date

Writing lots of minutes as usual...

Helping Dundee SSAGO to get set up along with Anona

Can't wait for rally!!

Anona Mann - Members Officer

Chassed up many grouos to get them to submit membership

Worked with Lorna to make sure all indis are payong membership though the shop, created a pretty spreadsheet to acumplish this!!

Attended TSA and GirlGuiding meeting worh Josh and traviled to London to have a sleep over at Larahs house!

Lots of exec meetings because od the vank related issues!

Spend new year writing up a new factsheet to help new committess

Went to the exec team building weekend were we all played lots of board games!

Read though spme archived material to help Larah find mention of membership numberd of SSAGO

Set up Herts SSAGO on the website and have started talking with Dundee to set them up to

Explained to sevral people that Harold is a mascot teddy bear not my boyfriend!!

Just spend most this year emailimg lots of people and eatting my weight on chocolate

James Frith - Publicity Officer

Visited Our Chalet and Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Switerzerland over New Years, took Percival with me, did a bit of SSAGO promoting, played boardgames with Glasgow SSAGO's Chair... oh, and proposed to my Kate in an igloo on top of an Alp!

Continued to provide clubs with helpful publicity material (posted a banner to Dundee!)

Bit of Witan Rally promotion through 'Top 10s', now the biggest Rally on record! Ball promotion to come...

New National SSAGO merch including Indie, Roverway, Media/Web/Archive team and general members clothing; all made available through the shop early last month, to be collected at Rally if ordered as such!

Organised SSAGO attending GirlGuiding's Sparkle and Ice for the first time, we ended up running the campfire on Saturday night and have been invited back for following years (as well as back to Wellies and Wristbands in August!)

Ran the first Training camp for my World Scout Jamboree units in Devon, as well as helped judge IST applicants at the South West selection camp... 20% of whom were SSAGO members! (Good luck all!)

Posted way too much about the SSAGO AGM and election already, with more to come!

Ordered some very exciting and shiny sets of badges...

Continued planning for future SSAGO Support events, handover and other Publicity plans!

Executive Assistants:

Larah Korrison - Archivist

Been in contact with several ex-members, including some with the help of Birmingham's Past Member Association

Working with volunteers on archive projects one including extracting club reports from past AGM minutes and SSAGO Journals

It's with a heavy heart that we announce SSAGO's first International Officer, Beatrice Phanjoo, has stepped down from her role due to study commitments with her law degree.

When asked to comment, Beatrice said; "After having an amazing year as an International Assistant, I have decided to resign to leave the space for someone else. I was passionate about my position and what I was doing and it is with regrets that I had to step down. So, if you are interested by researching SSAGO equivalent groups and organisations in other countries, reaching out, sharing and developing ties, this job is for you! If you want to organise events with international contingents or an SSAGO contingent to attend international events/camps, look no more, SSAGO needs you!"

We wish Beatrice all the best in her studies and for the future, and thank her for the legacy she's created as the first SSAGO International officer.

Applications for a new International officer will open after the AGM...

If you wish to run for any of the National Exec positions, you must nominate yourself online, supplying your manifesto, nominator and seconder. Nominations will be published on the 14th of February and will be printed and made publicly available for people to view and browse at Rally. Late nominations can still be submitted up to the 17th of February at 1pm.

If you wish to submit an event bid for any of the upcoming national events, these are also submitted online. You must provide a description of your event, those responsible for it and a seconder from another club to second your event. Bids are open for Spring, Summer and Autumn Rally, Ball and Witan.

As with last year, people not attending the AGM in person will be able to register to vote online and have their say. Registration to vote must be completed in advance of the 14th of February, and those attending will not be able to vote online.

The timeline for these elections are as follows:

February 14th 23:59 - Nominations published

February 14th 23:59 - Online voting registration closes

February 17th 13:00 - Nominations close

February 17th 13:00 - Online voting opens

February 17th 23:59 - Online voting closes

February 18th - Voting takes place at the AGM at Witan in a Weekend Rally

If you have any questions about running for an Exec position or bidding for an event, please feel free to get in touch with the exec at exec@ssago.org.

SAGGA have agreed to provide a returning officer for the election, which they are currently finalising. The returning officer will be there to answer any questions or queries you have about the elections process, and they can be reached at elections@ssago.org. Any current queries will be passed on directly once SAGGA have confirmed their officer.

A lot is said about the SSAGO Exec meeting with The Scout Association, Girlguiding and something called the Memorandum of Agreement. But what does it actually all mean and why is it so important?

Recently the National Exec met with representatives from both The Scout Association and Girlguiding in two significant meetings to discuss our relationship and how we support each other. These meetings were the first time in almost a decade that all three organisations have met together in one room.

But what does this actually all mean for SSAGO and why does it matter so much?

The Story So Far

Remarkably these discussions have being going on across three different National Execs over the past three years. It's fundamentally about a shared core set of values where SSAGO provides a programme and opportunity for people to continue their journey through Scouting and Guiding while at university.

Discussions begun initially in 2015 with The Scout Association about renewing and reformalising our relationship with them in writing as the original version of an agreement, as of the 1990s had been lost. Everyone knew SSAGO was an Associate Organisation to The Scout Association but no one quite knew what that actually meant.

By 2016 a first draft was complete which became known as the Memorandum of Agreement. At this point the discussions were expanded to include Girlguiding and it evolved to include all three organisations. This past year the current National Exec has met with both The Scout Association and Girlguiding to finalise the Memorandum of Agreement and have it ready for review by Reps.

The Memorandum of Agreement

The agreement is not actually one but rather two linked documents which reference each other. One for our relationship with The Scout Association and another for our relationship with Girlguiding. Both agreements cover many aspects of SSAGO which are important to every member.

At a glance, the agreement covers the following areas:

Fundamental Values

What They Offer SSAGO

What SSAGO Provides Them

Personal Liability Insurance

Public Liability Insurance

Safeguarding

Disclosure Checks

Incident Reporting

Emergency Procedures

Continuity and Communication

One of the big topics in this agreement is that every member of SSAGO who is also a member of The Scout Association or Girlguiding is insured for their activities in SSAGO through their respective organisation.

What Still Needs to be Done

The Memorandum of Agreement is in the process of being updated to a final draft which will then be taken to SSAGO’s next Reps meeting meeting in February. Here representatives of every club will discuss the agreement, any necessary alterations will be made and vote taken to implement it into official SSAGO policy.

Final Remarks

If you have any questions or comments this agreement please do get in touch. We’ve included below links to the relevant minutes and documents relating everything mentioned above. The drafts of the agreement are old now, but when new final versions are ready these will be emailed out to clubs and made available on the SSAGO website.

A record number of clubs voted on the issues discussed at our most recent Reps meeting at Plymouth Rally in November. Here are the voting results and what they mean going forward.

Hello SSAGO,

Thank you to every club that voted on the issues discussed in our most recent Reps meeting and everyone who got involved in the process. Once again we had an amazing 33 clubs making the past two Reps votes which is the highest turnouts on record.

A breakdown of the voting results is now available on the SSAGO website for every member to see along with how every club voted. This is linked to below along with the meeting minutes and other referenced materials.

The Key Outcomes Are:

The ‘Child Protection’ policy has been replaced by a new ‘Safeguarding’ policy (94% Approve, 3% Reject, 3% Abstain). This new policy covers disclosure checks, working with young people and brings us in line with current UK law.

The ‘Code of Conduct For Electioneering’ policy has been replaced by a new ‘Electioneering Code of Conduct’ policy (92% Approve, 0% Reject, 8% Abstain). This brings SSAGO’s current electioneering policy in line with how our elections are actually run.

The ‘Mascot Kidnapping’ policy has been updated from the 2008 version to a new 2017 version (92% Approve, 3% Reject, 6% Abstain). This restructures the original policy and makes mascots of regional event host clubs and at events where SSAGO members are volunteering or providing service unstealable.

A development fund for application from the Exec to purchase hi vis jackets to be used at SSAGO events and when supporting Scouting or Guiding events to promote SSAGO and increase our visibility was approved by Reps. (83% Approve, 9% Reject, 9% Abstain)

It was fantastic to see the amount of engagement we had from members around SSAGO in this process. We will continue to use your feedback to improve it. If you think of any other improvements we can make on the system please do get in contact.

What Next?

The next National Exec meeting will be on Thursday the 28th of December. If you would like anything discussed in this meeting, or to raise any issues then please let us know. The Exec can be contacted on: exec@ssago.org

Thank you to everyone who attended and took part in our most recent Reps meeting at Plymouth Rally. Voting for the policies and issues discussed will commence on Monday the 4th of December.

Every Club can get involved with the next step in this process and vote regardless of whether or not they could attend the meeting! Please can clubs make sure that their Club Rep is up to date on the membership system. (Select Rep Here)

Replace SSAGO’s current Code of Conduct for Electioneering Policy with the proposed Electioneering Code of Conduct Policy.

Update the Mascot Kidnapping Policy from the 2008 version to the proposed 2017 updated version.

Development Fund Bid: SSAGO Hi Vis Jackets

Now the Reps minutes are online (Here) every Club will have two days to look at the proposed votes and suggest any changes they would like to make by the end of Sunday the 3rd of December . This is your chance to let us know of any good ideas you might have thought of since the meeting concluded!

Based on feedback from Clubs in the Reps process we have amended the proposed Safeguarding Policy with further advice from the Scout Association. This is to provide more clarity on who needs disclosure checks when supporting events. (Updated Policy Here)

Below is all referenced material, including the Reps presentation, the meeting minutes and all proposed Policy Document changes. Please do have a look at these and get back to us with any queries.

Executive committee:

Had a very productive meeting with Girlguiding to discuss how we work together and strengthening our relationship further.

Have been preparing for a joint meeting with the Scout Association and Girlguiding to go through the Memorandum of Agreement.

Helped run and coordinate SSAGO Reunion.

Promoted SSAGO at Gilwell Reunion.

Dealt with a lot of admin...

Frances Milroy - Treasurer

SSAGO has money

Graduated!

Lauren Whittaker - Secretary

Travelled all over the country to go to various SSAGO related events – Led the SSAGO support team at Wellies & Wristbands at Waddow and have also been to Gilwell reunion with the rest of the exec

Went to a very interesting meeting with Girlguiding at their headquarters in London with Josh

Finally got round to writing handover notes ready for ball

Had a very delayed train journey to reunion but was well worth it and certainly had a great weekend!

Started my masters course and been to my first Glasgow SSAGO event! – looking to help grow SSAGO in Scotland!

Replied to various email queries

Anona Mann - Members Officer

Set up some more new SSAGO Clubs

went to Gilwell Reunion and helped show how cool SSAGO was and spoke to someone from Edinborough in hopes to start their SSAGO back up!

Started new term of Cubs and Beavers, aswell as starting my uni placement

Made 30m of bunting several carrot cakes (one exploded) and took them down to SSAGO Reunion!

Got to be a tourist round London with Vicky and we took Ralph and Harold to the Lego Shop and the Imperial War Museum!

Have started to help Larah look through old documents to find out national and club numbers

My smallest sibling turned 1 so we had a big party and i made him very cute trousers

James Frith - Publicity Officer

Organised SSAGO attending the Wellies and Wristbands Girlguding music festival; was awesome!

Led SSAGO's first programmed workshop "Scouting for Students" at Gilwell Reunion, along with the usual stall; went well!

Ran a "stall" at Intense for the day to make sure SSAGO had a presence at a prominent Scout Network camp just ahead of Freshers; was wet!

Attended SSAGO Reunion, helped a little but tried to enjoy the weekend as a participant (while also sharing/tweeting and resharing/retweeting on social media!); was brilliant!

Put together SSAGO "Publicity Packs" to give clubs a last minute publicity boost at a much cheaper cost than could be bought individually; will be asking for feedback in reps to develop for next year!

Designed and purchased new SSAGO banners (including a map banner which can be constantly updated with the new events, clubs, number of members, etc) that have already been used at 2 Reunions, Intense, lots of freshers fairs by clubs across the country; hopefully SSAGO will agree to buy them off me at the next reps meeting!

Made more little SSAGO promo videos for social media; page likes have reached 1270+!

Started combining everything into a SSAGO Branding Policy and SSAGO Media Policy, as Guidelines to help both clubs and future execs to use the SSAGO brand and media effectively to help promote their clubs

Shared over 30 freshers fairs posts from clubs, as well as the usual media posting and continued “SSAGO Spotlight" (if you’d like to feature, use the SSAGO facebook frame and drop me a message)

Continued my Graduate scheme, leading my new Scout group in Ivybridge, became the 7th World Scout Jamboree Unit leader for Devon county, and joined The Scout Association's project team for "Roverrail"; the Interrailing Scavenger hunt across Europe to celebrate 100 years of Rover Scouts!

Executive Assistants:

Beatrice Phanjoo - International Officer

Got Delft from the Netherlands to SSAGO Reunion

Attended Reunion myself and dived straight into a week of job experience in Bournemouth after that!

Contributed some articles to the Historical show at Reunion from our international friends, the Irish Rovers and Index from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tracked down The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Guides and Scouts and SSAGOgot invited to their international summer camp called Kliffa!

Contacted Hyde at the University of Helsinki and Teepakki at the University of Aalto

Executive committee:

Joshua Smith - Chair

On the 11th-13th of August we held a successful team building weekend in Oxford for the National Exec and Assistants where we had a number of productive discussions and had an Exec meeting staggered over the whole weekend.

I've also been catching up with the Exec, Assistants and national event teams to see how everything is going.

We've been working to implement the results of the last Reps vote.

An update is now available on the website with the next steps for SSAGO to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and how you can get involved. You can read that here.

Policy Fixers

The Policy Fixers have now reviewed 11 out of the 15 policy documents and we've been working together to update and improve SSAGO's policy.

A draft replacement to our 'Child Protection' has now been through the Policy Fixers twice and is currently being reviewed for us by the Scout Association.

A proposed updated version of SSAGO's election policy is now with Reps for scrutiny.

With the SSAGO Reunion only a month away I've taken an increasingly active role in its leadership to support the event and have been meeting with all the team leaders to get everything ready for the final booking stage.

Somehow I've now also volunteered to be in the stocks at SSAGO Reunion while people throw wet sponges at me...

I've produced an updated draft if the Memorandum of Agreement which is a proposed new agreement with the Scout Association.

We will be meeting with the Scout Association in September.

Lauren Whittaker - Secretary

Working with Larah to put old club reports and minutes on the website (on going)

Writing more minutes...

Enjoyed the team building weekend in Oxford as part of my grand tour of the UK!

Completed my Gold DofE award!

Anona Mann - Members Officer

Completed my Explorer belt by interailing round 4 countries

Moved out of uni halls into a house after too long! Consisted of walking many boxes across Sheffield

Set up Lincoln SSAGO and sent emails to the SU

Was taken on a day trip to Eurika by Vicky and Robinson!

Went to Poacher in Lincoln as SSAGO Support staff to man the Digger Challenge and keep evidence of Vicky's oddness throughout the week

Had meetings with Josh to talk about various membership releated things and to complain about the lack of sleep

Spent a weekend at Youlbury in Oxford on team building weekend and had a much deserved break with some awesome people!

Painted a room and started building a bed out of scrap wood

James Frith - Publicity Officer

Attended the 15th World Scout Moot in Iceland as a participant, promoting SSAGO to both fellow UK contingent Student Scouts and Guides, as well as Student Scouts from across the world… including the founder of Student Scouting in our host county, who may be bringing an Icelandic contingent to a SSAGO event in future!

Also designed a Moot Orange SSAGO flag to take with us, along with Percival (manifesto point achieved!), and scheduled a few Social media posts for while I was out of the country

Organised SSAGO Support for Wellies and Wristbands at both Foxlease and Waddow Hall

Designed SSAGO Support clothing that should feature in photos soon from the above, just sign up to help at an event to be able to order yours!

Designed prototype stickers and advert cards to debut at Wellies, also bought temporary tattoo paper and SSAGOfied a pair of bright pink Wellies for it!

Made more SSAGO videos, including A-level general promo video which increased page reach to over 17k for this last week... spreading SSAGO awareness!

Started “SSAGO Spotlight” on members to run throughout the freshers period; but only with your help… just use the facebook frame and drop me a message if you’d like to feature!

Continued planning “Scouting for Students” workshop for Gilwell Reunion… 10am both days in the Fox Marquee!

Continued planning future SSAGO Support events (Scarefest, Wintercamp), and new Publicity materials to be available shortly!

Somehow continued to fit in a full time graduate job…

Executive Assistants:

Beatrice Phanjoo - International Officer

Contacted three different Scouts association from Spain, one from Poland and Plast from Ukraine

Reached out to the new person representing the Irish Rovers

Contacted Trondheim Studentsgruppe, a group of university Scouts from Norway

Followed up on the Swedish Rovers (no success yet :( )

Went on holidays to gorgeous France and exciting Spain (luckily missing the attack)

Larah Korrison - Archivist

Organised the scanned Secretary folder, added them to the drive and the most interesting parts e.g. 2010 club reports are now onto the website.

Used the Wayback machine to find old exec, reps and AGM minutes (soon to be available on the website).

Also found and added to the drive early SSAGO News publications (2000-2005ish)

Successful and interesting visit to Gilwell - updated the records, we now know in more detail what there is and how much is still missing!

Spent a fantastic weekend in Oxford

Getting better at making coffee... Cappuccino anyone?

Laura Payne - SAGGA liason

Went to Poacher Jamboree and worked on the Inflatables section, helping to man and run all sorts of giant inflatable activities, from obstacle runs to Hungry Hippos to gladiator battles!

Attended Linconshire County A&E with a staff member who we thought had broken his toe falling off said inflatables (turns out it was a sprained foot!)

Attended SAGGA camp in Belgium for a week, doing a lot of cutting down trees/digging up roots and setting fire to them :D and lots of sightseeing, beer and chocolate!

Had a long discussion with lots of SAGGA members about their favourite SSAGO memories - these will be shared at reunion camp!

Consequently persuaded a few more people to sign up for reunion camp

Oliver Bills - Webmaster

Fixed the SSAGO email system when we ran out of emails(!)

Continual shop and booking system improvements

Preparing the website for Freshers

Preparing the membership system for the new academic year

Preparation of the next online booking stages for Reunion

Went to the 15th World Scout Moot in Iceland as IST

Vicky Sanderson – Notifications

Attended Poacher as SSAGO supports as staff on the diggers and Anona's minder.

Took part in some policy fixing and to meet with the Chair about Accident and Incident policies

Attended an amazing weekend in Oxford.

Organised the shop and50th badges to assist the exec.

Promoted Central Yorkshire at Child Friendly Leeds in Leeds.

Writing a risk assessment template for SSAGO.

Promoted SSAGO to Central Yorkshire Scouts.

Dealt with A-level results day at work and feltincredibly proud of her Year 13 History group

In our most recent Reps vote SSAGO clubs voted to proceed with becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (88.9% for, 5.5% against, 5.5% abstained). The next step in this process is to sort out the SSAGO Constitution.

Many years of altering parts of our constitution have left numerous loopholes and conflicting parts in it which all need fixing in addition to bringing it in line with Charity Commission regulations. This is something anyone can get involved in.

The current SSAGO Constitution is now going through the Policy Fixers project group for review to find all of these issues. Any SSAGO member can join this project and help review the constitution. Simply hit join below and then become a member of the Policy Fixers facebook group.

A record number of clubs voted on the issues discussed at our most recent Reps meeting at Leeds Rally in June. Here are the voting results and what they mean going forward.

Hello SSAGO,

Thank you to every club that voted on the issues discussed in our most recent Reps meeting. In total 33 clubs voted which is the largest ever turnout on record. We are well on our way to making Reps representative.

It was fantastic to see how different clubs engaged with their membership on the issues discussed. Some held club votes, others did surveys and some discussed the issues with their members at club meetings. If your club did something that worked well please do let us know!

A breakdown of the voting results is now available on the SSAGO website for every member to see with how every club voted. This is linked to below along with the meeting minutes and other referenced materials.

The key outcomes are:

The campfire policy will be formalised and added to the ‘Activity Guidelines Behaviour and Disciplinary Procedures’ policy document (53% for, 22% against, 25% abstained). Rally organisers will also be able to change the timings of the campfire song watershed with National Exec approval (83% for, 11% Against, 6% abstained).

Ball and Witan will have a recommended cost for participants of £35 and £370 respectively based on the results of the full membership survey. These costs will be guidelines which will give the event organisers overall flexibility on the final participant cost.

Clubs voted to increase the base cost of Rally from £25 to £27 (61% for, 19% against, 19% abstained) and to introduce a minimum amount of budget that has to be spent on Rally catering per person (54% for, 37% against, 9% abstained). This cost increase will take effect at Plymouth 90s Rally (17th-19th November). A revised ‘Running National Events’ policy document will be brought to the next Reps meeting for approval and will include proposals for what the minimum catering budget should be.

SSAGO will proceed with becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (89% for, 6% against, 6% abstained). The National Exec will work with the Scout Association, Girlguiding and the Full Committee (Reps) to update our constitution and get SSAGO ready to register with the Charity Commission.

The amount of engagement we have seen both from clubs who could and could not attend the meeting in person has really highlighted the true benefits of this form of voting. Overall we've had a positive response to the new Reps voting system with some useful feedback that will be used to continue developing and improving the process. We are a looking at ways to better reflect the discussion that takes place during the actual meeting part of Reps for clubs which could not attend. If anyone has any further suggestions or feedback on the process please do get in contact.

Thank you to everyone who got involved in the Reps meeting at Leeds Rally. We had some good productive discussions covering a wide range of issues. (See Agenda Here) If you couldn’t make the meeting there is still time for your Club to get involved in the process and most importantly vote!

Now the Reps minutes are online every Club will have two days to look at the proposed votes to take place which are linked to below and suggest any changes, additional options or new votes. This is your chance to let us know of any good ideas you might have thought of since the meeting concluded.

Please take this time to consider what was discussed, talk about it with your members and come back to the National Exec with any new questions or suggestion you have had since Reps. The meeting itself may now be over but discussions can still continue.

On Tuesday the proposed votes will be updated and voting will commence and remain open for two weeks. At this point the designated representative of every club will be able to vote on their Club's behalf. (Select Rep Here)

Once voting concludes the results will be published online.

Below is all referenced material, including the Reps presentation, a new SSAGO as a Charity Report and the meeting minutes. Please do have a look at these and get back to us with any queries.

Have started looking at updating how Reps is run to make it more representative. (Please let us know who you club Rep is here.)

Completed and submitted my dissertation!

Lauren Whittaker - Secretary

Written my second set of minutes (very long but productive meeting....)

Written an article for the SSAGO website about Forest evasion

Tried to chase up access to the Witan paperwork…. (still working on that)

Blinded everyone with new exec clothing on parkrun!

Not done too much – been very busy with assignments!

Anona Mann - Members Officer

Sent out many many emails, checking up on new groups and asking why people haven’t submitted membership yet!

Been organising OxonJam with James help we are 11 people signed up and it was very exciting.

I climbed up a mountain while looking silly (with a camera strapped to my head) for the intention of creating cool soon to be SSAGO videos to help promote SSAGO.

Planned my Leeds Rally costume, as well as looking at making the SSAGO committee some very Jazzy knitted wear!

I made a pretty map with rough regions of ssago groups that were from the previous membership stuff, but created two different option that can be used as a rough guide to help clubs

James Frith - Publicity Officer

Got more SSAGO news articles on the go, and started building the SSAGO press team! If you or your club have won an award (be it a Scouting, Guiding or Student award), let Melissa and I know at success@ssago.org

Designed and distributed the new Exec clothing and MOOT merchandise, and promoted SSAGO throughout the UK Contingent for MOOT! Another order will be up on theSSAGO shop very soon so keep an eye out!

Created a few "SSAGO Support" events (such as "OxonJam", "Gilwell 24" and "Wellies and Wristbands") and have organised more volunteering opportunities (such as "Magic and Mayhem" and "Poacher International Jamboree") to be released very soon, check them out on our SSAGO events page!

Continued working on publicity concepts for videos, banners, etc, will take to the media team in due course, so watch out for that too!

Lots of emails (we WILL get our SASU!) and social media-ing (What will SSAGO celebrate next? ;) )... and exam revision!

As some of you may have heard from Bath Ball, the national exec has unanimously agreed to begin the process of registering SSAGO as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Such a move would be hugely beneficial to SSAGO as a whole, with more access to funding and grants for national events, charity rates on things like paypal and activities and more legal security in terms of what exactly SSAGO is.

It would mean more financial scrutiny (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) and the constitution would need updating and tidying up. All of these are issues we are believe SSAGO can overcome and the benefits significantly outweigh the work needed to achieve this.

We met immediately after handover to discuss the positives and negatives of becoming a charity and the logistics behind implementing it given how important this is. The minutes are now available to all members on the resources section of the SSAGO website:

We would welcome anyone who looks through the minutes to get in touch with us if you come across anything you think we may have missed or overlooked either by emailing exec@ssago.org or contacting us via facebook.

This process will not happen overnight. It will take months of discussion with Reps, the Scout Association and Girlguiding. We will keep you all informed every step of the way!